Faculty Book: Paul Wachtel

Paul L. Wachtel

Cyclical Psychodynamics and the Contextual Self: The Inner World, the Intimate World, and the World of Culture and Society
(Routledge, 2014)

In this book, Wachtel extends his integration of psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, systemic, and experiential viewpoints to examine closely the nature of the inner world of subjectivity, its relation to the transactional world of daily life experiences, and the impact on both the larger social and cultural forces that both shape and are shaped by individual experience. He discusses in a comprehensive fashion the subtleties of the clinical interaction, the findings of systematic research, and the role of social, economic, and historical forces in our lives. Both a theoretical tour de force and an immensely practical guide to clinical practice, the book transcends the tunnel vision that can lead therapists of different orientations to ignore the important discoveries and innovations from competing approaches. Paul Wachtel (Dist. Prof., City) serves on the doctoral faculty in psychology.